The editors over at Edge.orgasked some of the most influential thinkers in the world — including neuroscientists, physicists and mathematicians — what they believe are the most important scientific concepts of the modern era.The result is "This Will make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts To Improve Your Thinking," a compilation of nearly 200 essays exploring concepts such as the "shifting baseline syndrome" and a scientific view of "randomness."

Summary of the most common / useful tools and licensing; Points our the importance of Free Open Source Software tailored for that purpose (Re-Use and Adaption), respectively a hand-in-hand development.

Robin Good: My personal thanks go to Liz Wilson on the Paper.li Community Blog, where she has published a great article about Adam Westbrook's fantastic eBook "Inside the Story" (I bought a copy after reading her review) where he collects and curate inspirational ideas and anectodes from 24 digital storytellers.

According to the author, the eBook was inspired by a project by Seth Godin – an ebook created collaboratively.

"The key word is authenticity.

Audiences are skeptical of commercials and advertising these days and don’t respond to it.

Journalists are good at telling real authentic stories.

Everyone has a story — even the smallest small business owner — and it is that story which customers respond to now."

The article contains also useful tips, advice and links to resources as well as a short list of brilliant digital storytellers from whom you can take inspiration from.

Thanks for the mention Robin but all credit goes to Adam - a guy who is really trailblazing in online video and entrepreneurial journalism. And doing it alone. He is the inspiration to digital publishers. I recommend everyone to follow his blog www. adamwestbrook.co.uk

A website providing a rigorous introduction to critical thinking.The purpose of this website is to provide a rigorous source of critical thinking information of value to many different communities. CriticalThinking.NET has been developed by Robert H. Ennis and Sean F. Ennis.

"In this essay, we outline a cognitive approach to democracy. Specifically, we argue that democracy has unique benefits as a form of collective problem solving in that it potentially allows people with highly diverse perspectives to come together in order collectively to solve problems. Democracy can do this better than either markets and hierarchies, because it brings these diverse perceptions into direct contact with each other, allowing forms of learning that are unlikely either through the price mechanism of markets or the hierarchical arrangements of bureaucracy. Furthermore, democracy can, by experimenting, take advantage of novel forms of collective cognition that are facilitated by new media."

Why is it that some meetings bring life to your soul, while others leave you wishing you'd never stepped in the room? What happens at the best ones, that makes them productive, fulfilling, sometimes even magic?

This deck of 91 full-colour cards names what skilled facilitators and other participants do to make things work. The content is more specific than values and less specific than tips and techniques, cutting across existing methodologies with a designer's eye to capture the patterns that repeat.

The deck can be used to plan sesssions, reflect on and debrief them, provide guidance, and share responsibility for making the process go well. It has the potential to provide a common reference point for practitioners, and serve as a framework and learning tool for those studying the field.

Find out more about the deck. Buy a Copy of the deck, or download a free PDF copy. Donate to the project, to help us develop additional tools to help facilitators and group process workers. Join our mailing list to keep up to date on what's happening on the project.Learn about the mobile/phone app.

Plus an unnarrated version on Vimeo http://vimeo.com/41621530 including the text quoted here: Welcome Anthroposcene encourages volunteers to make versions in their language.

Welcome to the Anthropocene is a website which is designed to improve our collective understanding of the Earth system. The site aims to inspire, educate and engage people about humanity’s impact on Earth. Its unique combination of high-level scientific data and powerful imagery will help people visualize and better understand humanity’s geographic imprint in recent time.

Meet Jason Silva, the fast-talking, media-savvy "performance philosopher" who wants you to love the ecstatic future of your mind.

Jason Silva: "....Timothy Leary the performance philosopher was born, and when he came out of jail all of the sudden he was on all these talk shows, and he was waxing philosophical about virtual reality, and downloading our minds, and moving into cyberspace. All of these ideas became associated with this extremely charismatic guy who was considered equal parts rock star, poet and guru scientist---and that to me suggests the true power of media communications, because these guys were able to take these intergalactic sized ideas and spread them with the tools of media.

The problem, as I see it, is that a lot of these stunning philosophical ideas are diluted by their academic packaging; the academics don't think so because this is their universe, they could care less about how these ideas get packaged because they're so enmeshed in them. But the rest of us need another way in. We need to be told why these ideas matter, and one of the ways to do that is to present them with these media tools."

"There's a lot of bad information ((and Filter Bubbles)) out there online. This guide can help you avoid the crap and become a savvier citizen of our digital age."

...and a link to Howard Rheingold's older writings, here: "Tools For Thought" ( "You can't understand where mind-amplifying technology is going unless you understand where it came from.") ..for those who might not know it.... http://www.rheingold.com/texts/tft/

..offered for free by Mr. Rheingold, but in this case missing the great re-examination of his own predictions and interviews from the new edition (2000)

"Lenses enable both organizations and individuals to give their stamps of approval to content in the repository, allowing for user-driven quality control of modules and collections.

Through these lenses, users can provide their own tags and comments for items in the repository. Lenses can also be used as "bookmarks" within the repository to keep track of related or otherwise interesting content."

Imagine a set of electronics as easy to play with as Legos. TED Fellow Ayah Bdeir introduces littleBits, a set of simple, interchangeable blocks that make programming as simple and important a part of creativity as snapping blocks together.

"Gaming is an important part of society today, and many see the evolution towards homo ludens (playing man) as its major characteristic. Now researchers from around the world are organising the first international conference dedicated to “Harnessing collective intelligence with games“, to be held in September this year in Germany. The conference is aimed at deepening our understanding of harnessing large groups of participants to perform certain tasks through games, an emerging catalyst of collective intelligence."

Stand back. This is a powerful talk from Chris Henrikson founder of Street Poets Inc. An organisation that is committed to building a community that brings together different racial, ethnic and socio-economic segments of the city of Los Angeles around the transformational power of the creative process.

Rhena shared about how intimidating and overwhelming it was to be in a room full of “techies.” The idea of incorporating technology into the classroom is daunting for teachers like Rhena, who have never had an office job or been expected to use technology to boost efficiency. I know this because I was one of these teachers for a long time. I lived in fear of Smartboards and the laptop cart because I knew that even the smallest malfunction could throw off my lesson, leading to potential chaos amongst my students. I felt incredibly frustrated when an admistrator asked me to use a new website, software program or device in my classroom.

Over the past two years, I have gone through a transformation process. Luckily, I feel much more comfortable in the tech space these days, but I haven’t forgotten the tech terrified teacher-friends I have left behind, and I want to do everything I possibly can to support them. Being a great teacher looks very different in the 21st Century and there is no reason that as our world evolves, our teachers can’t evolve with it.

"Here are the online articles and essays that I feel are useful for bringing “newbies” up to speed on some of the main currents of modern transhumanist / radical-futurist / Singularitarian thinking, science and technology..."

“If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.”

~Mark Twain

...

ABSTRACT: This document is an introduction to Open Learning. It examines briefly what "Open" means and the different facets of the open movement and what "Learning" means and how it is different for every person. Attention is brought to the issue of the digital divide and ways to reduce or eliminate barriers to education. We look at how to get started with Open Learning if you are fortunate enough to have access to the technologies, and possible ways of obtaining access if you don't. We then go over how to map out a personalized learning strategy that works for you. The core of the document goes over many of the different types of Open Learning resources available, and possible ways to organize and structure your learning. We will also looks at the issue of accreditation and how to receive recognition for your learning in a way that allows you to demonstrate your newly acquired skills. Finally, it finishes with ideas on how to start solo or collaborative projects as well as possible ways to get them funded.

There is a large collection of Open Learning resources at the end of this guide.

Great and empowering video by @FrigyesFogel about #changeagents aka #culturalcreatives - internationally.

culturalcreatives.cc

via @transarchitect

This film is the result of a 3 year-long project with no financial help whatsoever; therefore, I appreciate all donations, which will support similar film productions and the operation of the Cultural Creatives NetTV in the future.

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